direction, set design, lighting design

Based on a concept by Markellos Chrysikopoulos, the piece sets out to engage in a dynamic dialogue with the movements and aesthetics of German Expressionism and the political cabaret of interwar Berlin. It aspires to bring together music compositions that evoke the dark, charged atmosphere of the Weimar era as well as works that echo its anxiety, social upheaval and bold artistic experimentation. Although Gustav Mahler’s music predates this period, it is included in the piece’s repertoire, recontextualized and reimagined to acquire a renewed significance as it enters into conversation with the lesser-known, yet equally compelling works by Alexander Zemlinsky and Franz Schreker. Narrative threads such as the femme fatale, freedom of expression, crime, political unrest and the rise of totalitarianism are interwoven into the musical fabric, with arrangements that bring past and present into a musical dialogue.

The stage becomes a space that seeks to allegorically mirror the theatrical intensity and expressive richness of the time through a directorial and visual approach that attempts to shed lights on the emotional depth of the presented repertoire. 

Soprano Aphrodite Patoulidou, joined by the vibrant Ergon Ensemble, performs works steeped in melancholy and despair, while affirming humanity’s enduring need to sing even in the darkest moments of history. 

Panos Iliopoulos’s orchestrations shape a sonic landscape that shifts between the dreamlike and the revelatory, guiding the audience through an immersive emotional journey. 

The multifaceted visual identity of the performance, along with the lighting design by director Stefanos Drousiotis, lends a cinematic dimension to the concert, intertwining music and theater into a compelling narrative. “Songs for Dark Times” unfolds as a powerful musical experience, confronting the audience with the tension between “then” and “now,” and revealing how art can serve both as a record of its time and as a warning for the future.

• The work was presented at the Olympia Music Theatre Maria Callas in Athens, Greece.